


Jason's Angels

by Moonlark



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Allusions to an alternate universe of high school, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, High school crushes, Idiots, M/M, Teenagers, Written for a Class
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-03-28
Packaged: 2018-01-17 06:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1377796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlark/pseuds/Moonlark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Charlie, Scott, and Alex have commandeered the TV for the purpose of video games (Charlie’s soldier is kicking the other two’s asses), and Evan B. (a distinction needed because one of the councilors is also named Evan—Evan L.) has fallen asleep in one of the huge, soft armchairs. Max has recruited Adam to help him with his plan of sneaking into the girls’ cabins that night to meet with his sweetheart, and Cabin Councilor Johnny has already begun the struggle of “improving” Patrick’s fashion choices."</p><p>Josh goes to summer camp. He ends up rooming with his neighbor, Jason.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jason's Angels

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so the assignment this was written for is the "Prefab Story Exercise" which has a few main guidelines:
> 
> 1)The story should be no more that five pages, no less than three.  
> 2)The action should happen over a long weekend, convention, camp, etc.  
> 3)The antagonist should have something that the protagonist wants or thinks he/she deserves.  
> 4)Over the course of the story, the protagonist should be presented with the opportunity of taking the object of desire... or not.  
> 5)The object of desire should have metaphorical significance and should be the title of the story.
> 
> My friends described this as "gay guys at summer camp". 
> 
> Bitch, please. It's sooo much more than that.

As the door finally closes, Joshua relaxes and flops backward onto the bed, sighing in relief at the sudden quiet. Now that his parents have left, camp has unofficially started, and the outside world has begun to fade away. He’s got about an hour before flag ceremony and dinner, and he’s just gotta wait for his roommate to arrive.

He gets bored of waiting pretty quickly, and heads out to the common area. There are a few boys already there; he recognizes Max and Alex from last year, and Jeremy’s been here forever. There are some new faces, though, and Josh gets drawn into a game of Tonk with a couple of boys who introduce themselves as Javier and Michael. They lucked out and got the suite, and they’re waiting for their other roommate, Yuzuru, to finish putting his stuff away.

Eventually, Yuzuru joins them, and the Tonk becomes serious. Josh politely excuses himself when Michael accuses Javier of counting cards, and Yuzuru simply rolls his eyes and deals another hand.

Charlie, Scott, and Alex have commandeered the TV for the purpose of video games (Charlie’s soldier is kicking the other two’s asses), and Evan B. (a distinction needed because one of the councilors is also named Evan—Evan L.) has fallen asleep in one of the huge, soft armchairs. Max has recruited Adam to help him with his plan of sneaking into the girls’ cabins that night to meet with his sweetheart, and Cabin Councilor Johnny has already begun the struggle of “improving” Patrick’s fashion choices.

In other words, it looks like it’s going to be a fun year.

Josh heads back to his room, only to open the door and see a duffel bag that’s not his own. Hesitant and careful to make sure he stays out of sight, he peers around the corner, spots a ponytail, and ducks back into the hall, eyes wide.

Because yeah, he’s rooming with Jason.

It’s not like Jason’s mean or anything—just the opposite. He’s kind and sweet and overenthusiastic and somewhat naïve and a little weird and always smiling, and he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. Like Josh, he’s fifteen, and they go to the same high school. His ears are a bit too large and his brown hair is nearly always worn in a ponytail and and his eyes (also brown) smile just as much as his mouth does. He laughs a lot, and he’s sincere when he’s not laughing, and he occasionally smells vaguely of lady’s perfume, and Josh is jealous of him. 

That’s kind of why he doesn’t want them to room together: he’s jealous of Jason, and it’s irrational because he doesn’t know why. It’s not a fierce burning jealousy, just an itch at the back of his mind, but the fact that it exists at all bothers him. He’s pretty sure he’s only jealous of Jason’s grades, or his happiness, but still…

Also, rooming with a neighbor at summer camp is gonna be a bit uncomfortable, and they’ll have to see each other in school and out for the year to come. Also, it’s Jason’s first year here, and if the other boy doesn’t want to come back next year, Josh doesn’t want to be the reason… but he can do this, he tells himself. He can be the bigger man and bury his jealousy, and maybe camp’ll still be fun.  

Josh steels his nerves and pushes the door open.

Jason is sprawled facedown on the other bed, glasses settled on the bedside table and arm dangling off the edge. He’s wearing shorts and a t-shirt, standard summer camp clothes, and his feet are bare, the sandals that were previously on them sitting on the floor. There’s a silver chain around his neck, a thin necklace Josh doesn’t recognize, but the pendant isn’t visible; Jason’s lying on top of it. When he hears Josh come in, he rolls over, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. 

“Hey,” he yawns sleepily, before blinking and exclaiming “Wait, Josh?!”

Josh manages a grin and replies, “Hey, Jase.”

“We’re rooming together?” Jason leaps off the bed, and maybe Josh forgot to mention that Jason seems to idolize him a bit, seems to idolize almost anyone, kind of like a friendly puppy. He also has the energy of a friendly puppy. “I thought they tried to put you with people you didn’t know. How’d you manage this?”

 _I didn’t,_ Jason thinks. _That’s just bullshit on the brochures they hand out. It’s never really taken into consideration._ On the outside, though, he shrugs and says, “A whisper here, a suggestion there… it’s not very hard if you know who to talk to.”

Jason’s eyes get even wider, and yeah, there’s the aforementioned naïveté. Josh tamps down on the smoldering ember in his stomach and winks.

Suddenly, there’s a loud clanging, the slow, steady brazen peals of the assembly bell, calling them to the field for flag ceremony. Josh scrambles for the door. He looks back once, to make sure Jason’s following, and catches a glimpse of the previously hidden pendant. It’s a minuscule angel, wings thrown open in flight as it soars silently… but the next second Josh’s stomach reminds him of a more pressing concern. 

“What’s going on?” Jason asks.

“Flag ceremony, and then dinner!” Josh throws over his shoulder. He knows Jason’s gotta be hungry from the drive up here—it’s a long drive by all accounts—and news of dinner is guaranteed to make everyone, boys and girls, come running. Josh is no exception, sprinting hard toward the field with Jason right behind him.

When they reach the field, Josh turns to Jason and explains, “Since Pine is our cabin, we’re gonna line up on the far left side.” They slide into place along with the rest of their cabin, and Josh continues his explanation. “Oak and Sycamore are the other boys’ cabins, and Maple, Redbud, and Holly are the girls’ cabins. Pine is paired with Holly, Oak with Maple, and Sycamore with Redbud.”

“What’s that mean, paired with?”

“It means that we do activities with them, and we’ll be working together.”

“What kind—” Jason starts to ask, but then the last of the girls’ cabins (Maple) arrives, and Josh nudge Jason to shut him up, because the pompous ceremony of lowering the flag is about to begin. 

Nearly a hundred kids stand facing forward while the councilors (Johnny, Evan L., Stephane, and the rest of the lot) step forward to lower the flag and then carefully fold it, making sure no trailing edge ever touches the ground. Then Camp Director Evgeni—they say he used to be a Russian spy—says a few words, and camp is officially declared open.

There’s a brief cheer, and then the campers are dismissed for their wild stampede toward the promising scent of food.

Later, once everyone’s situated at the round, seven-person tables in the huge mess hall (Brackenridge Dining Hall), Josh and Jason find themselves lined by Max and Adam, as well as Gracie, Polina, and Mirai from Holly. It turns out that Jason already knows Gracie, and that the necklace he’s wearing is one she’d given him—she didn’t want it because it held bad memories of her old boyfriend, but she didn’t want to throw it away, either. Max glowers at the mention of that old boyfriend, and everyone pretends not to notice that Gracie and Max are holding hands under the table.

Josh mainly doesn’t comment because he’s too busy trying to control the spike and surge of jealousy that had erupted within him as the gifting and re-gifting of the necklace was discussed. Jason has tucked the pendant away under his shirt, but Josh is still rocked by his inner turmoil.

Finally, the campers are called to get food, and the conversation is steered to more pleasant topics. Josh piles his plate high, and then digs in with gusto. The food is standard camp fare, the stereotypical breaded chicken pieces, green beans, mashed potatoes, and other stuff, things that seem “American”. He eats a lot, but make sure not to stuff himself, so he doesn’t get cramps at the after-dinner activities.

That day’s after-dinner activities are just meet’n’greet things, name games, stuff like that. Josh doesn’t really need them at this point, except for the few new faces, but he can tell Jason’s grateful for the chance to learn who everyone is.

During one of the games, Adam overthrows the ball, and Jason has to leap for it. The necklace swings out of his shirt, and Josh has to deal with another stab of jealousy. 

That’s how the next few days go: Josh is fine, happy, enjoying the camp atmosphere, and then Jason come along and there’s the necklace and BAM! Jealousy. It gets so that Josh starts feeling relieved when Jason’s not around, and he can feel himself tense up when the other boy walks into view. But what’s worts is that he knows Jason’s oblivious; if his roommate had any idea how much it was bothering him, Josh knows he would put the necklace away, immediately. Jason never hurts anyone intentionally, which makes it a thousand times worse when it’s unintentional. 

Then there’s the actual roommate situation. Every night, Jason sleeps soundly in one bed, and Josh lies awake in the other, staring at the ceiling, trying to sort through the tangled and snarled emotions tin his chest. Occasionally, he rolls over and watches the other boy sleep, listens to him breathe, and feels a strange protectiveness he can’t explain, an emotion that doesn’t fit with the jealousy at all. He’s got no idea what’s wrong with him, but he does know that the necklace brought everything to the forefront. He begins to forget that he was even jealous before the necklace made its appearance, and starts to even possibly believe that if he takes the necklace, if he gets rid of it, or even makes it his own, then everything will be all right again.

There’s one other idea that begins to form, but he pushes it down, because it can’t possibly be that.

The fifth night is the night of the overnight backpacking trip, and Josh and Jason are squeezed into a small two-person tent. Neither of them fall asleep immediately, the air pads they’re lying on not quite enough to soften the hard-packed earth beneath them. They whisper back and forth, pressed together in the narrow tent, trying to ignore the nighttime sounds outside.

Eventually, Jason dozes off, head on Josh’s shoulder, and Josh is struck by how easy it would be to just take the necklace, then and there. The opportunity’s too good to miss. He carefully pulls his arm out from under his tent mate, then reaches around and undoes the clasp. He triumphantly lifts the thin chain away from Jason’s neck…

The angel is staring at him.

All of a sudden, crushing guilt sweeps over Josh. What kind of person is he? Jason trusts him, and he repays that trust by stealing the other boy’s stuff. How wrong is that?

He looks at Jason, at his now bare neck, and realizes that the jealousy hasn’t vanished. It’s still there, simmering, and he just doesn’t know _why_. 

He resettles the necklace so that the angel hangs at Jason’s throat, where it belongs. Strangely, he feels a bit better now, but the jealousy’s still bothering him, and now he knows it has nothing to do with the necklace. What does Jason have that he wants so badly?

He lies back down, resettling himself so that Jason’s head rests comfortably on his shoulder. He’s confused by the protectiveness he’s feeling, and how it’s conflicting with the jealousy, but he still manages to fall asleep eventually. 

The next morning, they wake early for the hike back to the camp and cabins that’ll take most of the day. It’s the last full day of camp, and even though Josh knows he’ll see some of these kids in the school year to come, Jason especially, he can’t help but feel a goodbye approaching. 

The campers arrive back at the cabins around three, and have a couple hours to relax before dinner. Josh accepts an offer to play more Tonk, and Jason stretches out on one of the couches and reads a book. It’s peaceful, and the common area is quiet for once. Between them, Josh and Yuzuru clean Javier and Michael out, and although the two win back some of their money when they switch to poker, Josh still walks away with a sizable gain.

Then the assembly bell rings, and everyone scrambles for the field, hungry after nearly two days of eating dried camping rations.

Later that night, there’s the huge last night party. Josh, of course, ends up playing more cards and getting more money… until the Peek game starts. Then all the chairs are hurriedly filled up, and dice are rolled with incredible speed. The giant room in Mollien Hall is filled with the noise of fifty voices and of cards turning over.

“PEEK!”

The single hollered word splits the air, and of course it’s Jason who gets all his cards turned over first. Jason is once again puzzled by the mixture of emotions he’s feeling, this time pride, jealousy, and longing, but he squashes everything down as the next round begins. It’s game time. 

Josh doesn’t get Peek, but he does end up with a pretty nice water gun, and Jason gets a solid pound of chocolate _and_ a makeup kit. Josh wonders about that, but he knows that Peek prizes are weird in general, and you don’t always get to choose your prize.

After that, everyone heads outside for the bonfire, s’mores, and a game of Sardines. The sun has set, and games in the dark are always fun. For this night, there’s an extra two hours on curfew, so they can stay out and keep playing. 

Josh gets to hide twice, climbing on top of Mollien Hall the first time and staying perfectly still, concealed by the steeple. Eventually, he’s found, and once one person (Polina) finds him, the others do, too.

The second time, he squeezes under Brackenridge’s porch, crawling to the end where bushes grow thick and concealing himself there. He seems to wait for an eternity in the darkness, even though his watch says it’s only been fifteen minuets.

Suddenly, his eyes pick out a pair of legs approaching the porch. They’re familiar legs, legs he’s seen often over the past week. They climb the stairs to the porch, and Josh has to say it’s one of the most eerie experiences he’s ever had, huddling there while those familiar footsteps traverse the platform above him. Eventually, they stop and then walk to the edge of the porch, where Jason peers down into the bushes, and Josh knows he’s been found.

Jason crawls under the porch, over to him, and they settle down to wait.

Eventually, Josh is starting to get bored. He checks his watch, using the light to read it, and sees that over half an hour has passed since he hid.

Suddenly, voices erupt behind him.

“There! There’s a light!”

“Where?”

“In the bushes!”

“I don’t see anything …”

“It was there!”

“Well, let’s check it out, then.”

And then Gracie and Max are staring at Josh and Jason through the bushes. They quickly realize that there’s no easy way through the twisted shrubbery, but the two go around and use the porch side to enter.

After that, Meryl arrives, not even bothering to look around but heading straight to the crawlspace like a bloodhound on a trail. Alex and Maia join them not long after that, and Charlie bumps his head while attempting to enter the hiding place.

Then the curfew bell rings, loud chimes pealing over the landscape, and the eight campers sigh and troop back to the cabins.

Josh has far too much energy to fall asleep right away, but Jason barely manages to take his shoes off before collapsing on the bed. This leaves Josh awake, standing at the window, staring out and pondering his feelings. The idea that had occurred to him a few nights ago, the one he’d buried, has wormed its way to the top again, and the more Josh thinks about it, the more he realizes it’s probably—no, definitely—right. 

He has a crush on Jason.

He, Joshua Farris, star forward on his school’s soccer team (as a freshman, no less!), popular, well-liked, and very much sought after by girls and guys alike, has a crush on Jason Brown, first piccolo in the marching band, quiet in school, funny outside of it, often teased and oftener excluded but still somehow happy. 

He’s known for a while that boys hold his attention better than girls do, but this boy… well, Josh would just say that this is unexpected. 

He turns around and looks at Jason lying there on the bed, fast asleep. Some people might wonder why he’d want to tap _that_ , but Josh has known Jason for a long time, and knows he’s someone who’s funny and quirky and cheerful and intelligent and kind and a great person, and—if you know where to look—really fucking hot. 

But he has no idea how Jason eels, or even if getting with such an innocent person might be considered exploitation…

He looks at the other boy again, considering. Jason sleeps on, oblivious, even when Josh sits down on the bed next to him. He’s so still, so peaceful, so happy even in sleep, and Josh begins to think, _What harm will one stolen kiss do?_

It might be the only kiss he ever gets from Jason.

He hesitates, watching and trying to resist for a few seconds longer, internally debating, and then leans forward to brush his lips lightly over Jason’s—

—and Jason mumbles against his lips, “Took you long enough.”

Josh nearly falls off the bed. “Wha-wha-what do you mean?” he stammers as he draws back as quickly as he can. 

Jason’s eyes open slowly, lazily, twin pools of chocolate glass glinting in the darkness. A small smile flits across his face. “You don’t have to pretend any longer, Josh. Congrats, you held out nearly the whole week, but it felt like I was going to die of old age waiting for you…” His voice trails off as he spots the incomprehension that Josh knows is written across his face. 

“Wait… you really didn’t notice?”

“Um… no?”Josh answers. It seems to be the safest option. 

“”The whole week, I was flirting with you, trying to get you to make a move, and you never even noticed?”

“Um… no?”

“Wow, I feel inadequate now.”

“Wait, um, Jase, you aren’t… you aren’t inadequate. I’m sorry if I’m blind and too obsessed with myself to notice what’s going on around me. I mean, if one of us is inadequate, then it’s definitely me.”

Jason’s smile lights up his face and a laugh that could only be called a giggle fills the room. “Calling you inadequate would be like calling the Empire State Building short: possibly true, but realistically false.”

Okay, that one confused Josh a bit. He says as much, and then it’s late night confession time. Jason tells him about how he’s been trying to seduce him for pretty much the whole week, and that Max had even wished him luck. Josh groans and buries his face in his hands, before telling Jason the saga of the necklace. At that, Jason bursts into laughter and has to hide his face in his pillow to make sure he doesn’t wake anyone with the noise.

“You were clueless!” he whispers. “It was kind of cute, actually…”

Josh smiles and rolls onto his side so that he’s looking deep into Jason’s eyes. “And you were kind of ineffective, but Jase, you’re also kind and funny and smart and an mazing human and… to be honest, hotter than you think you are.”

Jason’s eyes get wide again. “Wow,” he says, and Josh isn’t entirely sure what he’s referring to, but knows that he probably agrees.

What follows are some more minor confessions, some more laughter, and then eventually, a tentative kiss that turns into a make-out session. Both boys are too wise and too tired, though, to take things further here. They end up just lying on Jason’s bed together, dozing.

After a while, Jason says, “So… is this gonna be something after camp, too? Or are we just gonna pretend this never happened?” The first part sounds hopeful yet unsure, the second part weary and more certain, and Josh feels a rush of rage against whatever it was that led Jason to expect himself to be left behind… before he realizes that, y’know, the whole excluding him was something Josh had indirectly been a part of.

“Jase, if you don’t want to, I’ll try to forget, but… I’d really like to at least give this a try… so will you go on a date with me?”

The words have the desired effect. Jason laughs, smiles, and graciously accepts the offer. They fall asleep like that, next to each other, feet tangling in te minor beginnings of a human knot, and it’s the best sleep Josh has had in ages.

The next morning, after breakfast, Josh and Jason steal some time in a closet while Cabin Councilor Johnny is hounding everyone to clean up. Evan (L., the councilor) comes by to help, but is unceremoniously dispelled from the door.

The whole cabin laughs while he tries to get the mud off his pants and stalks off.

The morning passes in a whirlwind, and before Josh knows it, he’s all packed, hugging Jason in a goodbye before following his mom out to the car. His luggage is loaded into the trunk, and he settles into the passenger seat, relaxing and waving at Jason as the car pulls away.

Nathan A. Fisk Summer Camp has changed everything once again.

As he heads back to the real world, Josh can’t help but feel that the car he’s sitting in is driving, on, away, into the beautiful golden sunrise of the future.

**Author's Note:**

> Everything that is portrayed to have happened at Nathan A. Fisk Summer Camp is fictional. In fact, Nathan A. Fisk Summer Camp is completely fictional, and I apologize to all the Nathan A. Fisks out there.
> 
> I also apologize to Joshua Farris, Jason Brown, all others who are fictionally portrayed here, my readers, my family, my friends, anyone who visits this site, all users of the internet, every member of humanity, all life, the entirety of Earth, and the universe in general.
> 
> Sorry not sorry.
> 
> Now here's the real question: who wants the sequel, back at high school? Or maybe the previously unexplored territory of Yuzuviertinez?
> 
> Feel free to leave me your opinions in the comments.


End file.
